The Nook Color’s About to Get an App Store, Flash in Doubt

On Saturday, the future of Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color will be revealed in the unlikeliest of places.

The Home Shopping Network claims to have the exclusive scoop on new features for the 7-inch color e-reader, including an app store with Angry Birds, Lonely Planet Phrasebook, Drawing Pad and more. The TV retailer says it will provide a “sneak peak” of the new features, which roll out in April starting with HSN customers.

In any case, an app store alone would make the Nook Color more like a tablet than an e-reader. The Nook Color is based on Google’s Android operating system, so it can technically run any app from the Android Market, but HSN didn’t say how much of the Market will be available officially. At launch, the Nook included a few apps, including Pandora and Quickoffice, but there was no storefront for downloading more apps.

For tinkerers, though, it doesn’t matter. The Nook Color has already been hacked into a pure Android tablet, complete with the Android Market. That makes the Nook Color one of the most capable cheap tablets on the market if you’ve got the hacking chops.

But if you tune in to Home Shopping Network on Saturday, don’t be suckered. The asking price on HSN is $300, which is $50 more than Barnes & Noble’s own retail price.